One of the ugliest performances in pro basketball ended last night. The Mavs stunk it up from game 1 and it never got much better. Blow out losses and tight wins – that’s no way for a team that is supposed to win the championship to play. Oh yeah, the MVP candidate spent a good part of the 4th quarter, crunch time, on the bench because he was adding nothing to the team. Dirk’s no MVP yet – a very good player yes, but no MVP. MVP’s don’t shrivel up at the big moments.
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It’s GREAT to be home even though I didn’t get much sleep last night. Just being in my bed for a little while was a great treat but the best thing about being home is being with my wife and children. Nothing feels better than having them near me.
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You have a candle, gas lamp and wood stove. You have one match. Which one will you light first?

A strong storm blew through town Wednesday night. It’s not much fun sitting in a hotel in the dark while the power is out. The lightning provided some light and the lights were back on after a short amount of time. Tomorrow I’m headed for lovely Decatur. I can’t wait.
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I’ve been interviewing several people for sales positions while I’m here. I enjoy interviewing because you can meet some very, very interesting people. There aren’t many things I hear that shock me but people do continue to surprise me over and over. I suppose I expect people to be on their best behavior but when a woman I’m interviewing throws out a few cuss words during the interview…I am surprised. I want to say “what are you thinking?” but I just start winding down the interview instead.
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Do you have any fun, wild or wierd co-employee stories?

It’s rainy and windy in Salado and the first night away, always hard, was filled with intermittent sleep. How about more “poor me?”
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Today starts a new era for some of our employees. A new manager for the store brings some excitement, some trepidation. Change does that to almost everyone and the next few days will be interesting watching how the people here handle change.

It’s so easy to get into a comfort zone. I do it all the time even though I think of myself as someone who looks for and is open to change. I realize change will come and know it is best to be prepared and stay on top of it so I can have some effect on it yet I am comfortable being comfortable.

I battle the issue with my faith. I tell myself to rely on God, to turn my problems over to Him, to trust Him but it is hard to do at times. I need to change, to be more trusting, to be more open, to truly put God first. It shouldn’t be a struggle but it is only because it causes me to change.

I will begin today making every effort to turn my eyes to God, to see Him and follow Him, to trust Him and seek Him.

I’m starting to feel like Willie Nelson…without the hair, voice, ability to play guitar, or marijuana. I am headed out again to spend some time in one of our stores with a new Store Manager. A few nights in a motel, some fast food meals, lots of coffee while driving and I’ll be more than a little ready to be back home. I’m already wishing I was back and I still have to swing by the house to get my luggage.

After several days of attempted travel/actually going somewhere, I’m just a little too familiar with my suitcase.
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Someone mentioned the NBA playoffs have started. I haven’t noticed.
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Scott Verplank won the Byron Nelson. For a tournament too short on the big names, it’s neat to see a local guy win the prize.
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Now for real sports. The Yankees are coming to town. It’s amazing to me to go watch a Rangers – Yankees game because it’s hard to tell which team has more fans in the seats. It’s loud. I was at a game last year and A-Rod was booed unmercifully each time at the plate. Then, between innings when they were doing the Kiss-cam on the big screen (they pan around the crowds finding husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend trying to get them to kiss each other while the crowd cheers or boos depending on the kiss) they showed A-Rod in the dugout next to one of his teammates. He finally noticed, grabbed the teammate next to him and kissed him on top of the head which brought a big round of cheers. A good sport about it all and then he comes to bat and gets booed again. It’s tough making lots of money.
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I hope I get in tonight in time to see 24. The story is getting a bit goofy but I’m still enticed to watch just to see what will happen to the hardest working man in the world.
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To my children, if you are reading this, be nice to you mom and help her while I’m gone.

We have a situation on our hands. My son is playing select baseball and, if we win a few tournament games, has the chance to go the National Finals this summer. It’s supposed to be a really neat deal with thousands of kids, fun events and great baseball. The same week the Nationals are held is the week we take our annual family vacation to a spot in the mountains. My daughter, who doesn’t play baseball nor does she really care to watch anyone play baseball, isn’t happy about the prospect of getting to watch a bunch of 10 year old boys and goofy parents for a week. It’s quite the dilemma.

Have you been in one of these situations before? What did you do?

Our youth minister gave a great lesson last night about being in the world but not of the world. It’s a great conversation topic but I left asking myself how well I live it. Do people know I’m a Christian? Do people see that God is most important in my life? Do I seem very different from anyone else?

I keep coming back to the question of whether people really see a difference in my life because I am a child of God’s but that might not be the question I need to ask. Maybe “Am I living my life so that when I sing ‘I will give you all my worship, I will give you all my praise’ or ‘boundless love, unending joy’ or ‘Amazing Grace’ I really live what I sing?” And if I am going to sing it, I better live it.

The class discussed hypocrites last night. I’ve found it so easy for people to tag Christians with the hypocrite label because a Christian does something wrong. I suggest calling them a sinner would be wholly more accurate because all the Christians I know mess up now and again. Yet, I’m not sure hypocrite is the wrong label for me when I profess to put God first, when I profess to be completely His, when I profess to honor and worship him and then don’t set my mind, even my heart, to live this way.

I can beat myself up all day but I need to quit blogging and to starting living to what I have been called. I want only to live in the world but to be of God in my life. I hope I get better at it today and tomorrow and every day following. I hope someone will truly see God in me, in my actions and in my words, and they will fall in love with the Creator and the King and accept His matchless grace and love.

Yesterday was fun…NOT. I was supposed to be flying to Las Vegas for a seminar. I got there early to check-in and found out I had been upgraded to a first class seat. Things were looking good. Then, the lady told me that my flight had changed from Terminal A to Terminal D. Oh well I thought, D is the newer, nicer terminal anyway. About an hour before our 3:00 flight was supposed to take off, it was cancelled. The lady at the desk booked me on a 8:50 flight but told me there was a 2:20 that I could try standby for in Terminal C so off I went. The flight was already booked and the weather blew in. Those people were stuck on the plane on the tarmac in some nasty stuff. Once it cleared up they pulled up and unloaded them. They also cancelled the 4:20 flight and we all headed to Terminal A to try and standby for the 5:45 flight. About 10 minutes after that plane was supposed to start boarding, they told us it was flying out of Terminal D. It was then pushed back to 6:30 to fly out of Terminal A (you’re starting to see the pattern I bet). It as cancelled. The 8:50 flight was flying out of Terminal D so off we went. OK, frustrating but still not bad. There’s a Railhead BBQ restaurant in D and I was looking forward to it only to find it closed. Dinner at Bennigan’s and then watching the Heat-Bulls game in the terminal wasn’t so bad. At 8:45, they finally announced that our 8:50 flight was leaving from Terminal A at 9:20. Around 10:00, the evacuated the flight tower and I decided I wasn’t making it to Vegas and cancelled my ticket. At 10:20, they finally started boarding the plane and when I left the airport around 10:50 (without my luggage), the plane was still sitting on the ground. I was beat and thin on patience.

It’s a beautiful day today and hopefully my luggage will resurface so I can go back to the airport to pick it up. I’ve often seen these stories on the news and wondered how people cope in those situations. Some handle it pretty well, others do not. I thought two women were going to get in a fight at one point, others were very rude to the airline attendants who didn’t have anything to do with the weather or the decisions. The only thing that would have helped is if they would have kept everyone a little bit better informed but I suppose they did what they could.

It will be nice to be here a few days before leaving again next week for Salado.

Have you ever been caught up in a situation like that? What happened? Did you flip?

I think Cline sang the song “Crazy” originally but I’m not good with history so I could be wrong. It was a busy week leading to busier weeks for me so I’m not sure how much I’ll be blogging. For most of you, it is probably a welcome relief but then again, if you are checking here very often it is self-induced torture so I can’t help you much.

I’ve got a crazy travel schedule coming up over the next two weeks – all work related – and if you know me, you know travel isn’t my bag.

The problems with our baseball team parents seems to be working out. I hope it will get better but am of the mind that it will fall apart at some point. I suppose it depends on our record as much as anything. If we win some games, all will be better. I remember the cliche that says something to the affect that you can tell more about a person when they are down rather than when they are up. Sadly, it seems to be true in this experience.

What are you most thankful for? When asked this question, I most often think of some possession but today my answer would be “grace.” I heard a beautiful sermon this morning about grace and I realized it is my most prized gift. What a blessing to be a child of God, a God who extends grace to me. Realizing what I have through God, I certainly look at my small troubles such as travel, baseball parents and anything else and see that they are truly meaningless when compared with what God has lovingly given me.

I hope you have a great week and you too revel in the gift of grace that you and I have been given.

Anger is an emotion I wrestle with too often. Generally I do a good job of keeping it in check but too often for me, I don’t and I am wrestling with it today. I’m wrestling with it because in the course of trying to help boys enjoy playing baseball, I have to deal with parents who’s ego and single-mindedness has them dampening the spirit of the team. If you’ve coached or are close to someone who has coached, you probably know the drill. We’re not playing their little angel enough, pitching him enough, using him the right way. Their little angel hit better, ran better and caught better before he was on our team. Now there are some parents holding the rest of the team hostage until they decide if they want to play with us any longer. Part of me wants to throw in the towel but I have a little angel too and he wants to play baseball. He will overlook the problems if he can put on the uniform and get in the field. His passion and desire to play the game are the only things that keep me from walking away. So, we have to have a big meeting tomorrow and talk through it all and I’m worried my anger will come through. It’s the devil’s hook into me, one of the places he can really operate on me and pull me away from what I need to be.

Tomorrow night I have two battles. One is with a bunch of silly parents, the other with Satan. I hope I overcome both obstacles tomorrow but in the end, I’ve got to put my focus on the bigger one, the battle to control my anger and hope the other one will take care of itself.

It was saddening and sickening to hear about the murders in Virginia yesterday. What makes people do such heinous things? I have no ability to make sense of it or say anything that can make anyone feel any better at this time other than to pray that God will be sought out in this tragedy.

Saying that, what does get under my skin is listening to the talking heads on TV second guess the decisions the school administration and police officers made. I have a feeling that if a gunman walked into CNN or ABC today and started spraying bullets around, many of these arm-chair quarterbacks would be ducking for cover and not have a clue how to handle themselves. I trust that if mistakes were made, all of that will be considered by those involved in the near future and used to help so I can’t understand why these know-it-alls feel the need to pontificate on something they know little about.
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I’m enjoying the rain today. I hope we can avoid the bad stuff and just enjoy the wet stuff.